Chile\u2019s president has declared a state of emergency after an electricity blackout plunged most of the country into darkness on Tuesday, including the capital Santiago. <\/p>\n
The outage \u2013 in the middle of Chile\u2019s summer, when temperatures in Santiago are around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) \u2013 has affected some 8 million homes, President Gabriel Boric said in an address to the nation on Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n
The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service said 14 of the country\u2019s 16 regions were impacted by the blackout, which began Tuesday afternoon. <\/p>\n
Internet and mobile phone services were down across much of the nation and parts of Santiago\u2019s transport network was suspended, stranding commuters, as officials scrambled to restore power. <\/p>\n
The National Electrical Coordinator, Chile\u2019s grid operator, said a high-voltage backbone transmission line, that carries power from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to Santiago in the country\u2019s central valley, had been disrupted, leading to the blackout. It did not say what caused the disruption, but said it is investigating. <\/p>\n
The president said the state of emergency aimed to \u201cguarantee the safety\u201d of citizens as the outage may last into the night. Authorities also announced a curfew in effect from 10 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Boric blamed the debacle on the electricity companies, saying \u201cit is not tolerable\u201d that millions of people have been affected. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not going to let this pass and we are going to act firmly against companies that have not risen to the occasion. For this reason, all the necessary investigations will be carried out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
As of Tuesday evening, about a quarter of the electrical demand had been restored to the grid, according to the National Electrical Coordinator, which said it hopes full power will be restored \u201cwithin the early hours of the morning.\u201d <\/p>\n
Interior Minister Carolina Toh\u00e1 urged the public to stay calm and said officials were racing to restore power and operations across the country of some 19 million people. <\/p>\n
Toh\u00e1 said hospitals, prisons and government buildings were switching to backup generators to keep essential services running and that the national gendarmerie force had been deployed on the streets, to maintain security and support the flow of traffic. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur first concern, and the reason for this announcement, is to ensure people\u2019s safety,\u201d she said. \u201cObviously, this was something no one planned for.\u201d <\/p>\n
Daily life across much of the country came to a standstill on Tuesday as the blackouts suspended transport and paralyzed businesses. <\/p>\n
Metro services in Santiago, home to around 8 million people, were suspended until further notice and passengers were evacuated, Transport Minister Juan Carlos Mu\u00f1oz said. <\/p>\n
Videos shared on social media showed dozens of passengers disembarking from metro cars and being guided by workers in the dark to exit stations. <\/p>\n
Santiago International Airport said in a post on X that flights are operating regularly thanks to emergency backup systems. Chile\u2019s LATAM Airlines said some of its flights could be affected. <\/p>\n
The outage knocked out internet connectivity across much of Chile, according to internet watchdog NetBlocks, which reported national connectivity at 25% of ordinary levels. <\/p>\n
Officials also suspended a soccer match during the national Copa Chile tournament, saying it would be rescheduled shortly. <\/p>\n
Health Minister Ximena Aguilera said its healthcare network is fully operational, running on generators that will provide hours of power. <\/p>\n
In addition to Santiago, the blackout has also affected the regions of Arica and Parinacota, Tarapac\u00e1, Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo, Araucan\u00eda, Valpara\u00edso, O\u2019Higgins, Maule, Biob\u00edo, Los Lagos, Los R\u00edos and \u00d1uble. <\/p>\n
This story has been updated with additional information. <\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chile\u2019s president has declared a state of emergency after an electricity blackout plunged most of the country into darkness on Tuesday, including the capital Santiago. The outage \u2013 in the middle of Chile\u2019s summer, when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}